For those of you whose fantasies run to the harsh punishment end of the spectrum, here’s an excerpt from a judicial caning story called The Young Offender by Lupercal:

The Sergeant then took a brisk step backward and, laying the cane gently across the middle of the girl’s magnificent bum, measured his distance. Then, satisfied with his aim, he moved back even further till he stood eight or nine feet to the side of his intended target.

With a dramatic flourish he raised the long swishy cane high up over his shoulder and, looking round at the Superintendent, signalled his readiness with a curt tilt of his head.

“Stand clear,” Oliseh said to the doctor and to the two constables who stood nearby, then, consulting a printed paper he’d taken from his pocket, rounded on the Sergeant, telling him, “The Warrant is for twenty-five. Proceed!”

Without a word, Sergeant M’wapa launched himself forward – one huge stride, then another – and then, pivoting round on the ball of one foot, brought the cane thrumming down across the pretty young convict’s squirming upthrust rear, wringing from her a tremendous, ear-splitting shriek that made me fairly jump in my seat. “Oh my God!” a woman behind me exclaimed. “My baby! My baby!”

I shall never forget Bobbie’s baleful, heart-rending cries, the sharp, meaty ‘thwack’ of the cane against her naked flesh, and the way her big black bottom danced and writhed under that fearsome court-ordered thrashing. The Sergeant, as you would expect, was utterly merciless, punishing her with such ferocity that, at the fifth stroke, the Superintendent called a halt so that the doctor might assess the girl’s condition and determine her fitness to receive more of the same. But this examination, though competent, was merely a formality dictated by procedure. Sergeant M’wapa was an expert and everyone present could see that, despite the severity of her chastisement, the errant miss would suffer no lasting harm as a result of it’s execution. Indeed, it is a testament to the Sergeant’s proficiency with the rod, and, no doubt, to the many extra-judicial whippings he had meted out before the Act came into force, that, in the course of her punishment, the unfortunate young woman’s tortured hide remained completely intact, and not a drop of her blood was drawn.

Nonetheless, even at this point, with just one fifth of her sentence administered, it was clear that Bobbie Obasanjo would not sit comfortably for many days to come. Five huge ugly welts stood out like thick braided ropes snaking from hip to hip across her big bare bottom, each as fat as a man’s middle finger, and each a searing line of unbearable anguish, painful beyond anything the bawling teenager could possibly have imagined. These the doctor examined closely then turned to the Superintendent and said, “The injury is acceptable. You may continue.”

“Ohh! No! No! Nooooo…!” Bobbie wailed, he face a tragic mask of brimming, imploring eyes, bared teeth and wide, distended mouth. “No! No! Pleeeeeeease!!” she screamed, her broad hips arching up and jiggling frantically in a futile effort to forestall the resumption of her suffering. But Oliseh took no notice whatever. “Another ten,” he ordered and immediately the Sergeant sprung forward and struck again….